On his first visit to Nigeria in 2013, Egypt’s Omar Assar enjoyed support from the Lagos fans and the African champion believes that this will aid his quest for honours at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)-sanctioned Lagos World Tour tagged Nigeria Open.
Omar Assar
The 2013 Lagos Classics winner is however relying on warm reception he got during his maiden visit to Nigeria.“I enjoyed Lagos Classics 2013 so much during my first time in Nigeria and I was impressed with the beauty of Lagos and the relaxing mood.
“I was also was impressed by the enormous support I got from the spectators and table tennis fans in Nigeria. I liked it because I was well known in Lagos during and after the competition too.
“Their sportsmanship spirit thrilled me as they came to the stadium to enjoy good game regardless of who was winning. I am looking forward to enjoy Lagos 2014 again with good performance,” Assar said.
He however, expressed optimism that the eight-man Egyptian team would put up a good show. “Egypt will participate with the best team and I’m sure we are going to face many good teams including Nigeria. I really do hope that all the Egyptian players have prepared well for Lagos 2014 to be able to have good tournament,” he said.
For him, he hopes to enjoy himself as well be among the top players. His words: “My personal target is to enjoy Lagos and to play a nice table tennis.”
Assar, who is at present on a 20-day training tour of China, could not forget in a hurry the hospitality he got from the organisers in 2013.
He said: “The reception in 2013 was awesome and I think the organization was so good coupled with the efforts by the media team in helping me to stay focused and to solve any problem.
“I could recall that I fell sick at the start of the competition and the organisers helped me to get back very fast. I will remain grateful to the President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) for his care last year and also in Tokyo, Japan, he was so interested to know if I will come this year.”
He described Nigerian players as skillful, “I personally have a respect for all Nigerian players -men, women and coaches because of the way they comported themselves during the 2013 edition of the competition,” he added.